Overseas arrivals and departures are classified according to length of stay (in Australia or overseas), as recorded by travellers on passenger cards. There are three main categories of movement:

permanent movements

long-term movements (one year or more)

short-term movements (less than one year).

A significant number of travellers (i.e. overseas visitors to Australia on arrival and Australian residents going abroad) state exactly 12 months or one year as their intended period of stay. Many of them stay for less than that period and on their departure from, or return to, Australia are therefore classified as short-term. Accordingly, in an attempt to maintain consistency between arrivals and departures, movements of travellers who report their actual or intended period of stay as being one year exactly are randomly allocated to long-term or short-term in proportion to the number of movements of travellers who report their actual length of stay as up to one month more, or one month less, than one year.

Country of residence

Country of residence refers to the country in which travellers regard themselves as living or as last having lived.

Short-term visitor arrivals

Short-term visitor arrivals are overseas visitors whose intended stay in Australia is less than 12 months.

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